Music, books, and more (2025)
At a conference, a former student (who had moved on to a tenure track assistant professor position at an R1 university) asked what I do to manage the stress of being an academic. If you’ve been following the news, you will know that 2025 has been a challenging year for scientists (in general) in the US!
Like a lot of folks though, I read (books and comics), listen to music, and play video games. I have not really posted personal stuff in the past but the student appreciated the idea that academics have a life outside of the classroom/lab! So, in the spirit of sharing, I put together a short list of some of what I’ve listened to, read, and played in the past year (no judgement, please).
Music
The past year has been interesting as there were several new album releases. My 2025 recap is shown below.
There are many, many more musicians I listen to (though I did not get to watch many concerts this year).
Books
A couple of random (non academic) books I read throughout the year (some of these are old). The first one has been called The Social Network for the video game industry:
I did not get to read much fiction this year though I did attend a talk by one of my favorite sci-fi authors:
Brothers shows how immigrants from the Netherlands reshaped an industry. Doesn’t get into the Hagar years though:
An old one (but only heard about this in 2025): Davis, Coltrane, and Evans in one book! Describes how the three came together to record Kind of Blue.
Games
After years of waiting, this finally came out:
There are more games (e.g., Hades II, The Outerworlds II) but I have not gotten to them yet.
Bonus!
Attending talks is a great way to learn about new things (these were all at Mizzou).
In spring, Steve Inskeep (host of NPR’s Morning Edition) gave the distinguished lecture of the Kinder Institute (“Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America”):
NPR’s Science Friday also hosted a show at Jesse Hall:
In the fall, I attended a meet-and-greet (with other CEHD folks) with Maria Ressa, Filipino-American Nobel Peace Prize (2021) winner (invited by the Journalism School):
Though this is a very, very brief list, these represent time/events spent on non-academic stuff. I often encourage students to learn about different disciplines and be exposed to a variety of areas (which can only help them as researchers and educators)!
